The effect of demographic and economic factors on voting for left-wing populist parties in Latin America

Abstract

Despite the central role of populism in Latin America's politics and democracy, we know very little about the individual traits and motivations of those who support populism in that region. The left turn that characterized the contemporary stage of Latin American populism, along with the context of inequality and poverty in the region, has led much of the literature to analyze populist mobilization from an economic and class perspective. Does the profile of the Latin American populist electorate respond to this call? To answer this question, we analyze the socioeconomic and demographic characteristics of voters from six populist parties of this period: Evo Morales, from Bolivia;  Marco Enríquez-Ominami, from Chile; Rafael Correa, from Ecuador; Andrés Manuel López Obrador, from Mexico; Ollanta Humala, from Perú and Nicolás Maduro, from Venezuela. The results show that, while dissatisfaction about material deprivation matters, Latin American left-wing populist voters are not necessarily devoid and manipulable masses, but rather respond to a much more complex identity.